Piraeus Faces Dock Strikes

Dockworkers at the Port of Piraeus will launch rolling 24-hour strikes next week in a major escalation of protests against Cosco Pacific taking control of container operations at Greece's biggest port.
           
The port workers union staged a three-hour stoppage on Thursday to coincide with Parliament's ratification of a $1.1 billion contract giving Hong Kong-based Cosco a 35-year concession to operate and develop container terminals.
           
The union accused the government of creating a "private monopoly" in Piraeus and awarding Cosco "colonial style tax exemptions." It vowed to continue strike action even if Parliament ratifies the deal. The 24-hour strikes will begin on Tuesday.
            
Dockworkers have refused to work overtime, at weekends or on public holidays for nearly two years after the government unveiled its privatization plans. As a result, traffic stagnated at 1.4 million TEUs in 2007 and plunged to 430,000 TEUs in 2008.

Cosco Pacific has pledged to invest $300 million to upgrade facilities and boost the port's annual capacity to around 3.7 million TEUs to create a major Mediterranean-Black Sea transshipment hub.
          
The government's privatization plan suffered a major setback in December when Hutchison Port Holdings pulled out of a tender to operate and modernize the container terminal at Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest port.